The Last Miss Step
by LordW
Summary: Oneshot. Harry always thought his would be a noble death, oh how wrong he was.


Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters that are used in this story, if I did I would sell them to the highest bidder and move to a place far, far away.

A/N: Be nice

With a letter clutched tightly in his sweaty palm, a young man entered the ancient walls of Gringotts, London. The letter represented a hope for a future, one away from those who try to smother and hide him from his destiny. Escaping his watchers had been easy, he simply asked his faithful familiar, Hedwig to brutally feast in front of that days watcher.

After all, a person sat on a fence waiting all day would much rather stare at the barbarity that is nature than watch more muggles mowing their lawns are preening their gardens.

After that it was a simple measure of jumping the fence behind the house and using muggle methods to meander to magical London.

So here he was, to claim his inheritance from his Dear deceased god father. With the money and riches he was sure to get, he'd be able prepare himself through rabid shopping and become what he was destined to be, the hero to bring down the Dark Lord.

"Indeed Mr. Potter, the Black Estate is all in order and you are now wearing your family rings as an emancipated minor." Evilgit, the Goblin in charge of inheritance, told him. "All that is left is to key you into the vaults so that you can then come and go as you need." An odd glint had entered the Goblins eyes, Harry hadn't been paying too much attention to the proceedings though, he'd been to busy wondering how much grief he was supposed to show over the loss of his godfather.

'_Would crying be too much, it might show me as weak in front of the goblins, yet then again, they are noble warriors, not showing enough grief at the loss of someone in battle may be insulting to them_.'

With thoughts like these in his mind he hadn't noticed the change in the old goblin. He began paying attention again when the goblin stood and showed him to the carts to the vaults.

* * *

"Just touch this stone Mr. Potter and the vault will check your bloodline and open for you" says Evilgit the Goblin with a sneer. Oblivious, Harry decided that the sneer of a goblin was an attempt at a beaming smile. 

Slowly, Harry reached forward and brushed his hand across the stone.

_'It tingles, must be the magic checking my lineage.' _thought Harry.

Then, without warning and a slow slurping noise, Harry was sucked into the vault where he'd remain trapped until either a Goblin came to let him out, or the owners found him.

"We regret to tell you Mr. Potter, but war is bad for business and we just cannot see you beating the Dark Lord, so we thought it best to just wrap the whole thing up quickly. This is a vault once used by the Black family, although the security on it is much more rigid and the user is dead, so don't expect help to come anytime soon." Evilgit the goblin wandered off, a true happy beaming smile on his face as he thought of all the troubles he just saved his race from.

* * *

Harry was, to put it bluntly, horrified. 'If I ever needed to know what it felt like to be digested by a door, I know know.' Harry shuddered, the mere memory of the sensations having a detrimental effect on his mind and body. 

A life of being in the oddest of situations had left Harry semi-prepared, after all, learn from experience; first he used the Hermione method '_What do I know?_'

'_Hmm, this tickles my memory a bit, I remember the first goblin to bring me down to the vaults mentioning something about them sucking you in.__Oh yea, it only happens when someone attempts to enter a vault not their own….And they're only checked once every ten years…_'

Ok, that wasn't good, and the fact that the slow incarceration had allowed him to hear the goblins last words gave him the warning that, once again, he was alone while in danger.

Now to Ron's method; '_When in doubt, think with your stomach._' It wasn't the best method, but it did capture the point of long term survival. '_Well I have no food or water on me, but this isn't the first time I've been trapped in a cupboard without that, although this is my first time trapped in an air tight vault, so chances are I have a limited amount of air._'

Hmm, both methods so far seemed to bring more negatives than they did positives. '_Oh well, may as well see if there is anything useful in this vault, might be able to find a way out._' With that Harry lit his wand. The pitch black vault was immediately illuminated, and low behold the contents, for inside there was….a note.

'_Damnit, I can't even die in a pile of riches._' Harry wasn't overly amused by fates method of killing him.

**_To the holder of this note,_**

**_Chances are you are going to die within the next few hours._**

'A morbid start, how wonderful.'

**_I'm sorry but I have recently betrayed the Dark Lord Voldemort, and you have inadvertently stumbled upon a trap I had made to slow him down. The doors behind you will never again open, the vault is pressurised so that any attempt to destroy the vault would result in instant death. Sorry about that, but killing Voldemort is hard enough without making it easy for him._**

**_What you must understand is that the Dark Lord has created a series of Horcruxes. What this means is he split his soul apart and has stored it in a variety of objects throughout the land, so long as these items remain on the earth, the Dark Lord cannot be fully killed. This is why I meant to trap him within this vault, with luck he thinks a Horcrux that I stole is in here and came to find it. I know this is a long shot, but I must try._**

_'Well, bugger.'_

**_If the Dark Lord dies while trying to escape, then the protections on the vault will hold his soul here in stasis, hopefully providing his enemies with the chance to destroy his remaining horcruxes._**

**_If I have trapped you wrongly, then I am sorry, but I had this vault made special, there is no escape. I am sorry._**

**_R.A.B_**

'_Well, this isn't the way I expected to go. No glorious death charging down a troupe of deatheaters. Nor as an old man, rocking some young blondes world one last time. No, Harry_ 'The Hero' _Potter gets to die of suffocation in a trap meant for his worst enemy._' Hope wasn't the primary emotion in Harry at the moment, it had been replaced by numbness, knowing that he was going to die and there wasn't a thing he could do about it. After all, if this was a trap meant for Voldemort, how could an underfed half blood without a full education hope to escape?

'_I could maybe buy myself a few hours with a bubblehead charm; maybe the Goblins will rethink their policy._' He doubted it, but if he was going to die he wasn't going to go easily.

Glancing around, Harry noted that the vault seemed to be made of smooth marble, it had a shine to it, dulled only by the fact that there was a light coating of dust in the room. He had read and reread the letter a few times, no hint of any escape method at all. It would seem that this vault was, quite literally, a death trap. He had a few things pass across his mind, such as '_My last meal was an orange._' Another included, '_I wonder who'll look after Hedwig_', there was even, '_Will they think I ran like a coward, or will they find me when it's too late._'

That last thought brought him back to reality, '_I'm going to die. But what about the prophecy? If I can't kill him then who will, will he become immortal? After all, I'll be dead…_' A lead feeling settled in his stomach, the letter was raised to his face slowly, his hands shaking so much that he had difficulty reading that one line.

**_If the Dark Lord dies while trying to escape, then the protections on the vault will hold his soul here in stasis, hopefully providing his enemies with the chance to destroy his remaining horcruxes._**

"I won't die" Harry had inadvertently said it out loud. "I'll be trapped, no one can kill him except me, but my soul will be trapped in this cell, not dead but not alive." Horror gripped him; he may have just handed over the world to an eternity of Voldemort.


End file.
